Limescale and Hard Water Care
Hard water areas see faster limescale build-up on heat exchangers, cylinder coils and shower fittings, and understanding where it collects helps you manage it before it causes a failure..
Hard water areas see faster limescale build-up on heat exchangers, cylinder coils and shower fittings, and understanding where it collects helps you manage it before it causes a failure.
Where scale causes the most damage
Combi boiler heat exchangers and cylinder coils are the two places where scale build-up most directly reduces performance and can eventually cause a fault.
Visible signs around the house
White deposits on shower heads and taps, and a kettle that scales up quickly, are both signs of significant hardness worth taking seriously for the heating system too.
What water treatment can and can't do
Scale reducers and softeners can slow future build-up, but they don't remove scale that's already formed inside a heat exchanger or coil.
Practical steps in hard water areas
- Descale shower heads and taps periodically
- Consider a scale reducer at the mains inlet
- Keep up with annual boiler servicing so early scale is caught
- Don't ignore declining hot water performance
Who does the work
- Gas Safe registered engineers — registration 554328
- Worcester Bosch accredited installer
- John The Plumb Ltd, company registration 10026483
Concerned about scale in your system?
If your hot water performance has dropped gradually or you're in a known hard water area, we can check the heat exchanger and cylinder coil.
Questions we get asked
Does a water softener protect my boiler?
It can reduce the rate of new scale forming, though it needs to be plumbed in correctly relative to the boiler's cold feed.
Can scale be removed from an existing boiler?
In some cases a chemical descale can help, but heavily scaled heat exchangers sometimes need replacing rather than cleaning.
Is Farnborough a hard or soft water area?
Water hardness varies by exact location and supplier; check with your local water company rather than assume.